I tried so hard to be ready for 2018. I wanted to be organized, I was setting goals, I was getting everything in order.
Wellllll, it didn’t happen the way I planned.
All of my time, literally, all of my time revolved around Ninong’s since November. I was working an average of 14 hours a day, sometimes 18 hours a day. I barely had time to eat, let alone drink water! So bad, not something I’m proud of. I’m sharing to show how bad my work-a-holic “ism” was. I know for a fact that if I made time to prioritize and organize my days things would have gone a lot better. But I didn’t. I couldn’t get myself to look at work when I got home. I was already thinking about it so why apply myself to write things down? Stupid me.
So November passed, December did too, there went January, finally here comes February and I was able to get myself together. I’m able to walk away from this month with my feet planted on the ground. I’m finally starting to feel like my old self again!
This upcoming month is exciting for me! With all the ch-ch-ch-changes I’ve been going through personally and professionally I’ve learned so much about myself, what I can endure, and what I can become if I apply myself. So March’s theme is “Restart.” If I want my 2018 Word of the Year is “build” then I have to get back to the point where I feel like I have something to build upon.
That being said, March is when I’m going to start fresh! I may be late to start my goals by 2 months but at least I’m starting. Like Lara Casey (author, successful business woman, mom, and beautiful soul) says, “There’s nothing special about January.”
And for me, this couldn’t be more true. I’m not going to beat myself up about what I haven’t done. I’m going to celebrate what I have done and try to grow from here.
First thing is get organized. I need to get myself to where I was at the end of 2017 with my productivity. The best way to do that is to just jump back into my productivity tools – Todoist, Evernote, and my planner. I want to start the small little habits that made a big difference with my organization.
- Open Todoist, Evernote, and my planner 1st thing in the morning.
- Have a notepad or my cell phone nearby so I can jot down random thoughts.
- Update Todoist, Evernote during in the middle of the day and at the end of the day.
You won’t believe the difference these 3 steps have made in my productivity.
Next on the list is to prioritize. When you have a long list of things to do it’s easy to get cross eyed or stressed about it. When this happens to me personally I don’t get motivated to work because I’m overwhelmed before I even began! What I do to help with prioritizing different aspects of my life is to set things for certain days. For example, when it comes to cleaning I prefer to do it on my day off since it takes a good amount of time. That means priority for Mondays is cleaning. Another example is weekends are very busy for Ninong’s so my priority, naturally, is the restaurant on Saturdays and Sundays. This means, I’m going to schedule most of my cleaning tasks on Mondays as well as the bulk of my Ninong’s tasks only when I’m there.
Last thing for this month is to find balance. If you know me you know I’m everywhere. I guess it’s because I have so much going on that I become really scatterbrained. If you also know me then you know not only am I scatterbrained but I also am a major work-a-holic. I live and breathe business, I love everything about it so I have a habit of taking my work home. But this has to stop! When I say I’m done for the day then I really want to be done. That way I have time to give to my husband, family, friends, and to myself without feeling guilty.
Cheers to a productive, blessed, and successful month!
xoxo,
